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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174394">We Fell in Love in October</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/XAshArchangel/pseuds/XAshArchangel'>XAshArchangel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexuality, F/F, F/M, Giving Luna the Cottagecore Lesbian Relationship She Deserves, Lesbian Character, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Regulus Black Deserves Better</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:13:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,750</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174394</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/XAshArchangel/pseuds/XAshArchangel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Regulus Black had a family. Sirius and Harry gain two intelligent, fearsome witches of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black to their corner. What this turn of events does to the tidings of war and the fate of the British Wizarding world, well only time will tell.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter One</p><p>Perhaps this was a sign to re-evaluate his life choices. </p><p>‘Then again,' Harry Potter thought, 'perhaps I should have been re-evaluating my choices, Dumbledore’s choices, and the entire wizarding world’s choices since a Troll was set loose in the Dungeons of a school whose youngest members are 11’</p><p>Truly there is nothing like aging that inspires practical hindsight, for the tasks that an eleven-year-old would deem themselves capable of completing seem quite outlandish when viewed through the eyes of the ever-mature-fifteen-year-old.</p><p>Where were we? Ah, yes. Harry Potter and his life choices. See, currently, the unfairly lambasted boy is following a dog, one that he’s roughly 85% sure is his human godfather, to an unspecified location. </p><p>This trip was prompted out of the blue with not even a mysteriously coded letter for warning. No, rather as he was tending to Aunt Petunia’s altogether fussy and extremely British front garden (containing a privet hedge, impeccably selected bushes, and flowers of complementary colors) at only three days into his dreaded summer vacation, a large black dog (very surely his godfather) appeared at the gate and sat down.</p><p>After a relatively short staring contest and a series of pointed glances jumping from Harry himself to the window of Harry’s bedroom that Harry deciphered to mean “grab your things,” the boy scrambled to get inside the house, past Aunt Petunia without notice (she was gossiping with Mrs. Wilson at Number Two about the indiscretions of Mr. Stevens at Number Six, so it truly wasn’t that difficult to pass unnoticed) and back to the front garden with his trunk and Hedwig’s empty cage.<br/>
Then they set off.<br/>
They passed through little alleys and un-fenced back gardens in an attempt to remain as inconspicuous as possible. This was not a successful attempt. While the daylight was fading, the picture they made was quite interesting to the bored and nosy inhabitants of Little Whinging. The two shouldn’t worry a bit about the picture they made, however, as while the entire street would know of this interesting picture by the end of the next day, it was entirely bad form to gossip about a family to any member of the family in question. </p><p>Eventually, they reached a stopping point. As the dog halted in a nondescript part of the local playground, Harry was jolted out of his pondering regarding his admittedly disastrous life choices. </p><p>The large dog looked left, looked right, and then became a Man. </p><p>Not just any man, Harry was relieved to see, but his godfather; who gathered him in a warm, squashing hug as soon as his arms became man-like enough to accomplish this. Without saying a word, Sirius then presented Harry with a rather disgusting-looking and tattered umbrella. </p><p>Within two minutes they vanished. Not that anybody was looking. Sirius had picked a perfectly nondescript part of the playground after all. </p><p>They appear at the lovely front entrance of a house that Harry doesn’t recognize. As he looks around, Harry mentally corrects himself to a place that he doesn’t recognize, as the only mountains even close to the ones he could see all around him were definitely not the Scottish hills that he had come to love during his time at Hogwarts.<br/>
“Padfoot, where the bloody hell are we? What’s going on? is Voldem-”<br/>
“Prongslet, calm down. Sirius said, clasping Harry’s shoulders with his hands and looking deeply at him. “Everything is alright, we’re somewhere safe. I’ve got a lot to explain to you though, about stuff I’ve been working on for a few months now.”<br/>
Harry’s eyes widened. “Months! Padfoot I just saw you a few days ago, why didn’t you tell me anything then?”<br/>
“Too many ears Pronglset.”<br/>
“What? But, Dumbledore could’ve-”<br/>
“Dumbledore counts as a pair of those ears Harry,” Sirius explained calmly, hands still on Harry’s shoulders.<br/>
Harry felt himself shaking his head “Sirius what’s going on?”<br/>
Just then, an unknown woman opened the front door of the unknown house.<br/>
“Sirius! Thought that was you! This must be Harry.” She smiled. She was quite lovely with soft-looking chestnut hair and a wide grin that creased with faint laugh lines. </p><p>“Harry,” Sirius began, “this is Desdemona Black.” Harry’s head spun around from the woman to Sirius’s face in disbelief, which quickly turned to confusion when Sirius added “my sister-in-law.” </p><p>Harry had, in the past year of frequent correspondence and irregular meetings, been told of Sirius’ dreaded mother and father. He had been told that Sirius went to live with his dad’s family when the Black heir was 16, and of the hijinks and trouble that the two, plus Remus and the traitor, had gotten in their entire Hogwarts career. </p><p>He had never, as indicated by his current slack-jawed expression, been told of a living relative that Sirius got along with in any way, shape, or form. </p><p>“Let’s just get inside Prongslet,” Sirius told Harry, slapping him on the back and picking up Harry’s trunk. “I’ll explain everything.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 2</p><p>“Everything” turned out to be quite the tale. The trio went inside the stately house and beelined for a comfortable, expensive-looking parlor where Sirius spent the next two hours describing the events that lead to this odd situation Harry found himself in. But not before, of course, describing a story from decades earlier that led to the story of the past few months. </p><p>A tale of a younger brother named Regulus, who had followed the path that Walpurga Black set in front of him with little complaint due to the disappointment of an eldest son that they had been saddled with, in Walpurga’s terms. The Black family, having shrunk exponentially from several childless relatives, two blood traitors, and the rather dangerous life that comes from the fanatic following of an insane Dark Lord, needed new blood. </p><p>This is the point that Desdemona Black took over the role of the storyteller. </p><p>One morning in Regulus’ seventh year, he received a letter detailing his impending betrothal to an admittedly lovely Ravenclaw that at that moment was sitting about two tables across and twenty-five or so students over from him. This Ravenclaw, then named Desdemona Duncombe, was the only Pureblood daughter of the respectable pureblooded English Duncombe’s. </p><p>Not to be confused with the traitorous and foolish American Duncombe’s. These families were truly only about two generations removed, however, the divide was finished off nicely by distance and extreme ideological differences. Around the time Grindlewald was making a name for himself, the now-American Duncombe’s decided that all of these extreme Pureblood beliefs just weren’t for them and swanned off across the ocean. </p><p>Regulus Black married Desdemona Duncombe, of the English Duncombe’s, about a month after they graduated from Hogwarts. They got along quite nicely, having had most of the school year to come to terms with their situation and get to know one another. They might have made each other happy, maybe even have fallen in love eventually. </p><p>Unfortunately, with this marriage taking place in July of 1978 and Regulus dying in September of 1979, they were not granted the required time. </p><p>However, the unfortunately timed death of Regulus Black is hardly the end of the story. Sometime in August of 1979, the fertility and anti-contraceptive potions that Walpurga Black had been dosing Desdemona with during their weekly luncheons won out over the contraceptive charm that Desdemona had been using; not quite ready to be a mother at 18 after all. This led to a string of surprises for Desdemona. </p><p>She had known of Regulus’ growing dissatisfaction with the direction his mother had chosen for him after all, both being of a similar mindset against their rather extreme families (both positing that while they would hardly be strolling into the muggle world anytime soon, they truly did not care about the so-called infestation of muggleborns). She had been aware that he had discovered something awful about the Dark Lord, something that shook him to his core and inspired rebellion. So his death was, sadly, not entirely shocking. However, being woken up in the middle of the night by a distraught Kreacher was. So was becoming a widow at 18. The biggest surprise of all, however, was discovering that she was three months pregnant. This being just two months after the death of her husband. </p><p>This led to quite the decisive moment for the young widow. She looked around  at herself, at her insane mother-in-law and her fanatical parents that were already bringing up the topic of a second marriage. She thought of life with a son or a daughter, about raising a child in the middle of a warzone concerning beliefs she did not entirely agree with on either side. </p><p>Two weeks after discovering her pregnancy, she showed up at the doorstep of the Matriarch of the American Duncombe’s in Massachusetts. Great-Aunt Alice happily took her in. </p><p>To tie things up quite nicely, her insane mother-in-law died before the baby was even born and Desdemona’s parents disowned her upon her choice of refuge. Never discovering their grandchild’s existence. </p><p>Carina Ariel Black, named entirely in honor of her father, was born just a little bit early on March 20th 1980. The spring equinox. </p><p>This is when Sirius jumped back in to finish off the tale.</p><p>Dumbledore, who had been growing worried what with his spy’s dark mark growing starker on his arm, asked Sirius around Christmas if there were any black properties that could be polished and used for the soon-to-be-reassembled Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. When Sirius stumbled back into Grimmauld place and began checking to ensure that the only harm it would do to entering order members would be the affront on their sensibilities, he came across the family tapestry.</p><p>Wouldn’t you know it, he had a niece. No one had ever quite bothered to tell him. Of course, no one in England knew, so that wasn’t entirely anyone’s fault except for Desdemona; who had never even met Sirius. The blood traitor would hardly have been invited to the wedding, though he had seen the announcement in the Prophet all those years ago. </p><p>Sirius knew his brother, and had correctly assumed that the man had died while defecting from Voldemort’s service. The gamble was whether his widow shared those sentiments. Luckily, Walpurga’s screaming portrait was a wealth of information once you got her going. Her bellows of Regulus’ useless wife who couldn’t even get pregnant after a year of being dosed with potions and ran to her muggle-loving American relatives as soon as her darling son was declared dead.</p><p>The impulsive Gryffindor sent off a letter, summarizing essentially that he was innocent and if they ever needed protection he was quite willing to make that happen to his best ability, in honor of his late brother. </p><p>Desdemona, after charming the letter to ensure its safety, sent one back with the overall message of “prove it.” This then devolved into a complicated process involving a Goblin-protected meeting inside of the mercifully neutral Gringott’s Bank, some veritaserum, and a hatched plan to gain political asylum in America until the time that the ICW could demand the man a fair trial based on an ICW overseen sworn Oath. </p><p>This Oath was completed in the presence of an ICW representative at another Goblin-protected meeting inside Gringotts bank,  in which Sirius claimed to be innocent of murdering twelve muggles, the murder of Pettigrew, and the betrayal of the Potter’s location on the further existence of his magic. The quickly produced Lumos proved the truth of this Oath. </p><p>This almost wrapped up the lengthy and utterly impossible sounding story, except for one little aspect that Harry had been itching to point out. </p><p>“But Sirius, why can’t Dumbledore know about any of this?” Harry asked him sedately, having been quite overwhelmed from all of this new and life-changing information about thirty minutes in and provided with a calming drought.</p><p>“Prongslet, Desdemona was able to get me a meeting with an ICW representative after about a month,” Sirius said as if that explained the entire reason to his muggle-raised and quite ignorant of wizarding politics godson. </p><p>At Harry’s continued look of confusion, Desdemona stepped in. “Harry, while I come from a fairly prominent family and have a respectable amount of political sway as an employee in the Department of the Office of Magical Relations and Education at MACUSA (which is our magical government over here) Albus Dumbledore is a Supreme Mugwump.” </p><p>This also didn’t explain everything to Harry, and so Desdemona continued. “Harry, a Supreme Mugwump is an ambassador and representative between the ICW and magical Britain. Getting Sirius some sort of political asylum or trial overseen by the ICW should have been child’s play for him.”</p><p>“But,” Harry started, “I heard Dumbledore arguing with Fudge when he was about to have Sirius Kissed. Fudge wouldn’t even listen!”</p><p>“Prongslet, Dumbledore could have gone to the ICW anytime after you and Hermione broke me out with Buckbeak.” Sirius said gently. “I wasn’t really thinking straight at the time, and neither was Remus, but as soon as Desdemona was able to get me that meeting, I realized.” Harry’s shoulders slumped as he leaned back on the chair he was in, expression darkening.</p><p>“He left you on the run,” Harry whispered.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to break down Carina's name a bit, outside of the story. The Carina Nebula, or Eta Carinae Nebula, contains the Carina Defiant Figure. Which looks like a middle finger being raised. Ariel, meaning the lion of God, is a nod to the name Regulus as the brightest object in the Leo constellation.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 3<br/>
“C,mon Harry” Sirius said gently, rising from his seat and softly pulling the shaken boy up to standing. “Mona’s letting us stay with her until I’m a free man; she even set you up with your own room.” </p><p>Harry hardly heard this, his mind frantically flitting from thought to thought, trying to make sense of what seemed like a earth-shattering dump of information. He let Sirius guide him up stairs and past several doors, opening the second door from the end of the hall and revealing a nice, rather nondescript bedroom. </p><p>“Here you go, and I'm next door. If you wake up and need anything, even if it’s the middle of the night, wake me up. I promise Prongslet, I’ve been getting better sleep in the last week than in the last thirteen years and I can spare a night.” Harry nodded absently at Sirius’ words, noticing distantly that his trunk and Hedwig’s cage had been put into the room already. Sirius closed the door and Harry stood in the middle of the room, his whirring thoughts having blended until the only thing running through his head was a sort of white noise. </p><p>He lifted his head, looking at the space around him. The walls a light gray color, with an open door to a bathroom that looked to be connected to another room. His eyes settled on the full bed, covered in a Navy blue bedspread and a giant, fluffy white blanket. Without consciously deciding, Harry’s feet began to move towards the bed. He kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned his jeans, collapsing into the mattress and wriggling underneath the comforter as soon as they were off. He closed his eyes and accepted oblivion. </p><p>As Harry sunk into unconsciousness upstairs, the last two truly named members of the House of Black gathered in the kitchen downstairs. The two sat around the kitchen table while a house elf prepped for breakfast in the morning.</p><p>“It looks like he took it well Sirius,” offered Desdemona, or Mona as her newfound brother-in-law had quickly named her.</p><p>“He was too quiet,” Sirius announced, shaking his head. “Merlin’s staff, when he met me for the first time he attacked me. He attacked me knowing I was his absent godfather and thinking I was also a  mass murderer who betrayed his parents. He’s spent the last year defending himself against the entire wizarding world. But this...he took this all in and barely said a word. I don’t even know if he realizes we’re in America.”</p><p>“Sirius I do not know that boy, but from everything you have told me it seems that he has just experienced one of the strangest nights of his life. Not the most terrifying by any means, but the oddest most certainly,” Desdemona started, keeping an even tone. “He has crossed continents, been rescued from his relatives’ house, and been told that his last remaining family has a family. He has also been told that his mentor is not to be trusted. I have a feeling that in the morning, he will react much closer to your expectations.”</p><p>“Mona, I don’t bloody know what to expect!” Sirius near-shouted. “I don’t know him, not in the way I should. Bloody hell, I’m his godfather and I barely know anything about him at all, I haven’t been in his life for twelve years.” Sirius sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “I’ve failed him almost his entire life, and he still trusts me more than I deserve by far. I just don’t want to keep failing him but I feel like every time I see him I tear his world apart.”</p><p>Desdemona smiled wryly at the Black Lord. “Sirius, you were kept from him for all that time, and you are doing what you can to make up for that now. I cannot promise you that everything in the coming months, the coming years even, will be easy for that boy. But it will be better if he has you to guide him through it.” She stood up from the table. “It is late, and it has been quite the evening for everyone. I will see you in the morning, and do not forget that Carina will be home from her friend’s house by then.”</p><p>Sirius snorted, “Now that's gonna be a meeting.”</p><p>“Oh, stop! Carina will be perfectly nice to him, she can be rough around the edges but I have seen no proof of the infamous Black cruelty in her.” Desdemona admonished. </p><p>“Not that Mona, I just don’t think Harry’ll know what to do with her,” Sirius barked out a laugh. “She’s not exactly the type they’ve got at Hogwarts.” </p><p>At that, both adults went upstairs; unsure of the future but hopeful all the same.</p><p>___________________________________________</p><p>Harry woke up with a headache and cottonmouth. Groaning and rolling up to face the ceiling, the 14-year-old boy felt fear shoot through his entire body. ‘Where am I?’ Harry shouted internally. His entire experience rather like the morning after a woman’s first one night stand, though the boy certainly wouldn’t be able to see the similarities in situation. Not with lemon-mouth Petunia Dursley or down-with-the-scarlett-women Molly Weasley or equally young and quite proper Hermione Granger as his dominant female figures in life.<br/>
Harry jolted up, frantically looking around him for any sense of familiarity. Last night’s events came back in a flash, and he settled back down. </p><p>Dumbledore. He’d trusted the man, more than he’s ever trusted literally any adult. Well, perhaps that’s not quite true. He trusts Sirius, at least enough to follow the man to who-bloody-knows-where. </p><p>At that thought, Harry looked around the room again. He had been told that he was at Desdemona Black’s house, which in itself was enough to give him another bloody headache. But, hadn’t Sirius said she moved to America after the first war? </p><p>Deciding it was time to face the light of day, Harry pulled himself out of bed and began to freshen himself up. Grabbing some of his trademark raggedy and too-big clothes out of his trunk, he paused to look at Hedwig’s cage. She had never failed him before, but would she be able to make the trip all the way across the pond? If that was even where they were. ‘Ah well, if it comes to it she’ll bunker down with Hermione or the Weasley’s,’ Harry thought. </p><p>Of course, Harry had no idea that at the moment, those two options were the same exact place. Though, interestingly, not Grimmauld place. But that's for later.</p><p>The bathroom was nice, all creams and shining silver faucets. It featured a respectably sized walk in shower, one that Harry took his sweet time enjoying. Water pressure and temperature at the Dursley’s always left something to be desired after the magically supplied showers at Hogwarts, and that was when Petunia wasn’t locking Harry in a room and timing his bathroom breaks. </p><p>Soon enough, Harry found himself without anything else to do that could delay going downstairs any longer. </p><p>As he made his way downstairs, Harry took in the look of the house in the daylight. This does imply that he had taken notice of any of the house’s decor the night before, which is patently false as he had been much too dazed and confused. </p><p>Just as the bedroom and bathroom Harry had used, the house was lovely. If a bit too pristinely decorated. It was modern and fashionable, unlike Aunt Petunia’s taste, but it easily could have been featured in one of her home and garden magazines. Harry found himself at the bottom of the stairs, and, just as he had experienced at the Weasley’s, crossed the bottom step and was hit with noise. Though not anywhere near the pandemonium normally found at the Weasley’s, Sirius’ booming voice was easily heard, alongside one Harry didn’t recognize. The two voices bantered back and forth, and he was soon able to estimate the voice as one belonging to a girl. One probably around this age. </p><p>Now, it is entirely understandable that in comparison to his mentor figure’s betrayal and the possibility of his godfather becoming a free man, Harry had somewhat forgotten the other details. Even though Desdemona’ Black’s pregnancy had been described in the story as both the impetus for her abandoning her parents and essentially becoming a blood traitor, as well as the reason for her and Sirius making contact in the first place, no one had ever accused of Harry Potter having an astute manner of observation. Certainly he managed to observe exactly what his teachers, friends, and enemies would likely not want him to observe. However, that skill quite ended at sniffing out trouble and evil plots. </p><p>He was thus unprepared, as he turned the corner to enter the kitchen, for the sight of Carina Ariel Black.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>No Beta, we die like men.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She was gorgeous, of course, resembling his beloved dogfather more than anything. She had the same coloring, the same curls, the same bold smirk at the edge of her wide grin. She was also rather….scantily dressed.</p><p> Americans, though Harry was quite unaware of where he was at the moment and had a rather limited understanding of American trends (having grown up in a cupboard surrounded by suburbanites) so would not be able to make this connection, had a rather different idea of house clothes than the English. Rather than a full set of pajamas covered with a plain bathrobe, she had some terrycloth shorts with bunched up bobby socks and an oversized sweatshirt emblazoned with the words “The Notorious RBG” and a picture of a woman who quite reminded Harry of Professor McGonagall. </p><p>The girl and Sirius were in the middle of a loud debate on something called the “Sex Pistols,” which Harry thought he recognized as a band that Dudley had been shot down from listening to, and did not notice his arrival. </p><p>Desdemona Black, on the other hand, caught sight of him the second she turned away from the stove and gave him another warm smile. </p><p>“Harry, darling” she called, “wonderful timing, I was just finishing the kippers.” Sirius and Carina broke from their “discussion” and Sirius strove over to sling an arm across Harry’s shoulders. </p><p>“Morning pup, sleep alright?” questioned Sirius.</p><p>“Yeah” Harry answered, “though, Sirius where exactly am I?”</p><p>“Montana,” Carina piped up, her accent clearly startling the sleep-ruffled boy. Harry’s eyes widened to owl-like proportions behind his round glasses.</p><p>“We’re in America!” Harry exclaimed, “I didn’t even know portkeys could bloody go that far.” </p><p>Sirius and Desdemona exchanged a weighted glance. </p><p>“What?” asked Harry, deadpan, noticing the look. As previously stated, his powers of observation were limited to ferreting secrets and just about nothing else. </p><p>“That’s something else we wanted to bring up prongslet,” started Sirius, more carefully than Harry had ever heard him try to be. “ We think that Dumbledore left you, well, purposefully uninformed.” </p><p>Harry’s eyebrows furrowed. “What d’you mean?”</p><p>Desdemona again took over, “While my familial values had me quite separate from most muggleborns, there are no restrictions on blood purity in Ravenclaw. I quite clearly recall muggleborn and muggle-raised students getting all sorts of pamphlets and reading suggestions for learning about the everyday aspects of the wizarding world.” </p><p>Harry shook his head. “No, Hermione would have told me if she got something like that, or at least I would have seen them in the dorm or something from Dean.”</p><p>“Harry,” Sirius interrupted. “Remus found out that Dumbledore had gotten rid of all that just a few years before you started Hogwarts.” </p><p>“Well, that doesn’t mean that Dumbledore was targeting me or anything.” Harry protested, “that could just be a coincidence.”</p><p>“Remus found out that rather than the reading stuff, new students all get invited to introductory lessons in the weeks leading up to school,” Sirius said. “They learn all about the magical government, travel, sports, all of it.” </p><p>“I mean that sounds dead helpful but it's not-” Sirius interrupted Harry. “Prongslet, Remus is certain that you are the only muggleborn or raised student who didn’t go to these.”</p><p>Sirius had gently led Harry by his shoulders to sit at the breakfast table during all of this, and Carina was politely and awkwardly taking out plates and knives and the like to avoid making eye contact. </p><p>“Pup, you told me in a letter that Hagrid was the one to come to your house and take you to Diagon Alley for your shopping.”</p><p>“Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything.”</p><p>“You know I like Hagrid.” “Started Sirius, “But he is absolutely the wrong choice to introduce muggle-raised to the wizarding world.” </p><p>“Why?” Harry asked.</p><p>“Harry, he forgot to tell you about how to get onto the platform.” Sirius started, “He’s a great man but he’s forgetful and will never question Dumbledore’s orders, not under any circumstances. Normally, professors go to muggleborn and muggle-raised students to provide an in-depth explanation to their parents and ease them into all this.”</p><p>“Yeah but it’s not like the Dursleys didn’t know about all this stuff. They knew I was a wizard the whole time, nothing had to be explained to them.” Harry argued.</p><p>“But plenty needed to be told to you,” Sirius said. “Hagrid is the only Hogwarts staff that would not have known or accepted orders to not tell you about the introductory lessons. He’s the only one who would have left you in the dark.”</p><p>“In the dark for what!” Harry burst out, “Sure, I don’t know a lot about portkeys or mugwumps or anything but that’s all stuff that Hermione tells me anyway. Even if Dumbledore kept me from those lessons, what does that even do?”</p><p>At this, Desdemona (who had been quietly eating breakfast with Carina as they both tried to politely leave the two British wizards to their conversation) interrupted. </p><p>“Harry,” his head swiveled to face her. “If you would have known about the Wixen Child protection department, would you have tried to get away from the Dursleys?”</p><p>Sirius squeezed Harry in a side hug as he looked at the witch, a rather heartbroken expression on his face. </p><p>“If you would have known,” she continued, “that the youngest age for emancipation is 13 in the British wizarding world, providing that the child can prove financial security and proper need, would you have taken that option?”</p><p>Harry nodded his head. While his mind had whirred with the information dump of last night, he realized that he had truly been told the bare minimum of the situation at hand. </p><p>The Dursley’s had been reported to muggle child services once, but the brother of a bobby in that department worked for Grunnings and said bobby was “incidentally” the officer sent to do an inspection. But a wizarding version, Harry thought, they would have likely done anything to get me away from the Dursley’s before the smear campaign of this summer. While not a fan of his fame, he did at least notice that in the wider wizarding world many adults fell over themselves to shake his hand and offer their name. This, combined with a dismissive air of muggles, could have worked like magic. Literally. </p><p>The patchwork family of four ate their breakfast in thoughtful, heavy silence.</p>
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